Former CIA Operative Edwin Wilson Dies at 84

Edwin P. Wilson, a former CIA operative who was branded a traitor and convicted of shipping arms to Libya but whose conviction was later overturned after he served 22 years in prison, has died. He was 84.

Wilson died Sept. 10 in Seattle from complications from a heart valve replacement surgery, said Craig Emmick, a director at Columbia Funeral Home in Seattle.

Wilson who set up front companies abroad for the CIA and posed as a rich American businessman was convicted in 1983 for shipping 20 tons of C-4 plastic explosives to Libya. At trial, he said he did it to ingratiate himself with the Libyan government at the CIA's request.

A federal judge threw out his conviction in 2003, saying the government failed to correct information about Wilson's service to the CIA that it admitted internally was false.

Wilson had been sentenced to 52 years in prison for selling arms and explosives to Libya in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and for other crimes, including attempted murder and criminal solicitation.

He served 22 years in prison until he was released in 2004. He then moved to Edmonds, Wash., north of Seattle, to live with his brother.

While in prison, he sought to provide his innocence by using the Freedom of Information Act to request government documents.

Wilson was born May 3, 1928, to a farming family in Nampa, Idaho. He worked as a merchant seaman, and earned a psychology degree from the University of Portland in 1953. He joined the Marines and fought in the last days of the Korean War, according to his death notice.

He went to work for the Central Intelligence Agency after being discharged from the Marines.